The inaugural Ranck Lecture and the presentation of the Ranck Award for Research Excellence was held Wednesday, March 28 in the Winters Alcove of the High Library. This lecture, sponsored by John Ranck ’58, professor emeritus of chemistry, recognizes faculty scholarship and research in various academic fields. The Ranck Award recipient was professor of political science and department chair Dr. April Kelly-Woessner.
Professor of chemistry and Dean for Academic Affairs and Faculty Development Dr. Kristi Kneas presented the Ranck Award, introducing it as a celebration for scholarship. This award seeks to celebrate scholarship, excellence and commitment of faculty to their fields. Its nominees include professors of Elizabethtown College who have demonstrated clarity and thoroughness of application in their fields of interest.
Professor of political science E. Fletcher McClellan introduced the Ranck Award recipient, Kelly-Woessner, as a “professional skeptic” and “equal opportunity offender.”
“We need to share what we know with a larger public and try to understand each other more broadly,” McClellan said.
Kelly-Woessner then accepted the award and presented the first Ranck Lecture. Her lecture focused on applying personal research examples to debunk cultural claims, staying in an objective viewpoint throughout her presentation.
She also stressed the importance of professors becoming more public intellectuals.
Ranck, the sponsor of this lecture and award, feels that Etown has professors who are teaching what they love and are knowledgeable in the subjects they talk about. Kelly-Woessner is portrayed as no exception to this description.
“Woessner excellently reflects the prize with her topic and as a scholar active in her field,” Ranck said. “The prize is the recognition of a faculty member actively engaged in their field who has an extra dimension to share with students.”
In conjunction with the Ranck award and lecture, the library introduced its new institutional repository, JayScholar. JayScholar will serve as an online, open-access, searchable showcase of the College community’s scholarly works. With the funding from a recent Mellon grant, the library will now be collecting various types of materials for inclusion in the JayScholar repository, including theses, capstone projects, SCAD and SCARP presentations, student art and faculty scholarship and research.
“On one hand, the event elevates the research of Dr. Woessner, but on the other hand, it levels the field by recognizing all faculty scholarship,” instruction and scholarly communications librarian Jennifer Strain said.
Since JayScholar is a digital publishing platform, student editors of campus journals can also have their work published in this platform. The 2018 volume of “Fine Print,” the College’s literary magazine, will appear in this format.
For more information or to contact the library with any ideas or questions about JayScholar, please email Strain at strainj@etown.edu or director of the High Library Sarah Penniman at pennimans@etown.edu.
